Analysing and explaining Charles Dickens' Great Expectations; Chapter 1.

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Charlie Macgilchrist 10C

English/ Media Coursework/ Dickens/ Chapter 1/ films

THIS WAS ALL WRITTEN BY CHARLIE MACGILCHRIST OF ST. BENEDICTS RC SCHOOL AND PERFORMING ARTS COLLAGE, DIFFIELD ROAD DERBY

Media Coursework- Analysing and explaining Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations; Chapter 1

In this essay I am going to “Compare the opening scenes of the two film versions of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations,(BBC’s 1999 and David Lean’s 1945,) and review how effective they are in creating an atmosphere of tension.”

The analysis of the films corresponds to Chapter 1 of Charles Dickens’ ‘Great Expectations’ and I shall first of all inform you using a brief summary, of what happens in chapter 1 of Great Expectations: 

The story begins with pip, who introduces himself and describes an image of  himself as a young boy; standing alone, mourning and crying in a church-yard near some open marshes. Young Pip is staring at the gravestones of both his parents who died soon after his birth. This tiny, shivering bundle of a boy is suddenly terrified by the voice of a large, bed ragged man, who threatens to cut Pip’s throat if he doesn’t stop crying. The man dressed in a prison uniform with a shaven head and a great iron shackle chained around his legs, grabs Pip and shakes him upside down emptying his pockets. The man devours a piece of bread, which falls from one of Pip’s pockets, then barks questions at him. Pip tells him that yes, he is an orphan and that yes he lives with his sister, Mrs Joe Gargery, the wife of a blacksmith about a mile from the church graveyard. The man tells Pip that if he wants to live, he’ll go down to his house and bring him back some food and a file, for the shackle on his leg.

Pip agrees or rather promises to meet him early next morning, and the man walks back and disappears into the marshes.    

     

For both leans and BBC’s films version of the book I am going to go through each stage of the scene, explaining how they manage to build up and create an atmosphere of tension for the viewers. I will then evaluate and compare the setting, location, the props, the costume, the sound effects, hair, make up, the background music, lighting colour framing camera movement, editing and other visual effects of each film, and also review on how effective these factors are in the approach to creating an atmosphere of tension. I will structure this essay by first reviewing all of film one, (1945 David Leans version ) and then comparing it with film two(1999 BBC’s version), giving my own personal analysis, and then rounding up and finishing it with a conclusion.

To start with in Leans film, it’ already created an atmosphere of tension because of how explosively and dramatically it starts. It launches into action straight away with loud, vigorous, and seriously intense music that scares you out your skin, ‘wakes you up’ and ‘throws you off your seat’! Because of it’s exhilaration and highly energetic ‘blast off’ into the film beginning, which is so sudden and traumatising it already merits for creating an atmosphere of tension because it implies the film involves something drastic and intense occurring in it, immediately tensing up the viewer(s).  

Also in this shot, the large bold titles with a bold, black ‘n’ spooky background help to add tension too, because darkness is associated with doom, violence, hell, destruction and death, which horror and fright the viewer, creating lots of tension in their minds. The big bold titles are also effective in tensing the atmosphere because they are big and bold like those on caution and warning signs, hence adding to the idea that something drastic and horrible will happen, frightening thus tensing up the atmosphere even more.

Everything then slowly ‘dissolves’ into the next shot, which slowly and creepingly draws your attention to a small book which appears to open by itself, as a deep and ghastly voice presently starts to read it. This is effective at creating tension in the atmosphere because of how eerie the book is; coming alive, which isn’t possible in the real world. This means it can only be the result of wizardry or which craft, which are associated with evil, and evil tenses up the audience because evil scares them. Also the way the camera zooms into the book creates tension in the atmosphere because it forms the idea that there’s something in the book that could lash out at you in any moment, and because your being forced into going near it tenses and angers you (which for anyone, being forced into doing something tenses and angers them.). The deep ghastly voice of the narrator creates tension too, since it’s associated with mean, nasty people, making the atmosphere uncomfortable and  unpleasant which tenses the viewers up. On the other hand, though to some viewers who have seen many unexciting fairytale films such as ‘sleeping beauty’ and ‘Beauty and the Beast’ would find this quite a bad approach to create tension in the atmosphere because this type of ‘book magic’ is done at the start of many modest and boring fairytale films, which if they don’t create tension neither will this. The background of this shot also stays completely pitch black, since this causes the audience to apply all their attention to what stands out the most; the book, which already appears spooky and because it’s surrounded by darkness which is associated with evil and death, which makes them believe that the book is as well(that’s why it’s there), creating even more tension in the atmosphere.

Tension increases further as the zooming in of the book to a super extreme close up, increases speed, in harmony to the books pages begin to turn faster and faster, frantically and uncontrollably with again the shot ‘dissolving’ away into the start of the movie. This induces even more build up of tension in the atmosphere because it portrays that a story is just about to unfold and the swift and mad page movement imply that something dramatic and erratic is going to happen in the film. The third shot is a ‘mix’ to ‘long shot’ of some deserted, isolated, dark and depressing landscape of a muddy marshland with open fields. This combined with the urgent running, puffing and panting of a small boy in the distance coming closer and closer to the camera creates tension because the boy for some reason is tense himself, and the fact that he’s running frantically applies that something threatening and evil is after him or that he’s late for something very important which could cost him very dearly.(i.e. in his life!). The fact that it begins at the brink of night time increases tension because many nasty things like murders and deaths happen at night time and in the evening, and evil things like hell, beasts and torture are associated with darkness which help to build up the same atmosphere. The location itself being isolated creates tension because it portrays that many things could happen to you and you could scream and shout for help as loud as you could, and no one would here you. The winds howling a coil breeze and an owl constantly and spookily hooting tenses the atmosphere because winds brew up into storms and hurricanes, that causes destruction, devastation and death. This shot also creates tension because storms and hurricanes can correspond to peoples minds under huge stress, madness at explosive measures, and their numerous irritation and recurring thoughts, swirling around like the winds; rushing, going crazy and out of control with tension and violence. The coil breeze is much small than the storm but could soon change, hence it resembles pips thoughts and emotions slowly building up to a tense, stressed, malevolent and uncontrollable rate.

The owl hooting with anticipation creates tension because the owl is commonly associated with mystery and guardians of secret, and perverse hideouts of witches or wizards. Since witches and wizards are regarded as superhuman (in a sinister way), dark and evil, this implies that pip could be involved in witch craft, wizardry and evil measures of black magic, which creates tension, suspicion and suspense in the audience because they want to know what pips involved in, why and what will happen to him when he arrives at his urgent and mysterious destination.

On the other hand, the owl could be spying and watching over pip as he unknowingly trespasses a secret evil hideout that the owl is keeping guard of. Again this creates tension along the same principle as the previous suggestion did.

The 4th shot is a close up of the boy panting with uneasy movement and a petrified, terrified look on his face. It shows pip stepping up over some bricks quite casually, obviously allowing the audience to assume that pip knows where he’s going, and the fact that he stops and looks around himself before he proceeds implies that he is up to something suspicious and top secret, and because of this he is frightened that the place he approaches is inhabited by something which could suddenly lash out and attack him as he draws nearer, and into the creepy, mysterious place. This obviously creates tension in the atmosphere because it shows the emotions and nervousness of pip,  which for a start aren’t very pleasant, how they affect his movement and what he’s actually doing,(a curious approach to something) and how they portray the idea that he is putting himself into a lot of danger and breaking some important rules to do something he shouldn’t; which for many people if they do something similar, usually the are caught and have terrible things done to them which is what they expect to happen to pip very, very soon.

The audience can sense something drastic is building up to happen, they just want to know what, and when. This creates a mood of suspense, which for the audience can cause a traumatising effect on them, and eventually irritated them, through the deliberate delay, which is very effective in increasing the atmospheric tension.

The 5th shot is a ‘close up’ of pip kneeling at the gravestone, while the wind continues to howl, the owl continues to hoot, and the trees creak and sway spontaneously above him. Pip is clearly nervous as he stops every split second sharply, and looks cautiously around himself, quickly and ravingly ripping out the dead plants that surrounds the gravestone as quickly as possible. This gives us the impression that Pip feels someone’s after him, watching him, hence he wants to finish his intended job and get out of their as quickly as possible.

This creates tension in the atmosphere because it shows pip as a shaky, scared, defenceless and lonely little boy being tormented by his fears and the spooky surrounding that overpower him.

The 6th shot is a short but effective shot of the large, grizzly, overhanging tree which is filmed at an angle looking up at it from down below (as how pip would see it), which emphasises how small, caved in, vulnerable and defenceless Pip is in this situation. This tree appears to swish and sway uncontrollably in all directions, manipulating the audience into assuming that the tree will fall on top of pip when he least expects it, and when they least expect it, creating tension in the atmosphere even more.

The 7th shot is back to the ‘close up’ of Pip paralysed s and clearly petrified at the gravestone. Pip’s nervousness clearly increases here as the sound effects carry on, steadily increasing frequency and volume, which enhances the increase in the tension in the atmosphere. In this shot Pip is literally frozen scared, and dares not to make a move. This leads to suspense in the audience because they want to see what happens next, which they can sense will be drastic and entertaining. This makes the viewers impatient to see it, thus the tension in the atmosphere begins to uncomfortably increase to a high climax point here because of Pip’s actions they can sense the drastic moment will occur in any moment from when Pip gains the nerve to move.  

The 8th shot is a repeated shot of the close up of the creaking tree. The fast alternation and repetition of this, and the shots of pip create tension in the atmosphere because represents pips thoughts and nervousness about the ghastliness and idea that the tree might fall on him, and cause terrible injury of death to him.

Finally in the 9th shot, when pip can no longer take the agonising pressure caused by the traumatising position he’s in, he shoots up off the floor and scampers alarmingly away, which because he runs so fast is helplessly tracked by the camera, causing the tension splitting moment; when he runs into the convict and screeches a merciful and strenuous cry, is all a flash and blur to the audience because of  how tense and mentally abused Pip has become.

This is effective at creating tension in the atmosphere, because of how quickly and sharply it happens, and also because of the loud and sudden outbursts of Pip’s screams, which shocks the audience, scaring them ‘out their skins’, and ‘throwing them out of their seats.’ This is so fast and brutal is causes the audience to have an adrenaline rush, which can uncontrollably tense anyone up. Because of its immediate thrust of speed, It hardy allows the audience to perceive something bad has caught Pip and something bad is going to happen to him. They want to see what he’s run into and what bad things will happen to him, hence tensing them up even more.

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The 10th shot(s) is a fast and exhilarating mixture of split second, alternating, ‘extreme close ups’ of the convicts and pips face as they quickly try to come to realise their situation. The extreme close ups show the emotions on both the characters faces, and create tension in the atmosphere because of how fast they alternate and how short and sharp each alternating shot is. These represent the fright in Pip’s mind, and the wild speed of all his terrified thoughts, flashing raving through his brains and traumatising him through their irritating, uncontrollable and repetitive ways. This creates tension in the ...

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